Life

Wednesday Warrior: Pride of the Déise

Wednesday Warrior: Pride of the Déise

This weekend sees Pride of the Déise take place - A celebration of Waterford’s inclusion & diversity, promoting Waterford City as a safe place for everyone. Shonagh spoke to committee members Debbie O'Rourke, Cody Sweeney & Tia Weldon to hear more... 

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Last week students from Loreto Wexford held a Period Poverty Awareness Day.

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To raise awareness, these inspiring students made sustainable period pads before freely distributing tampons and pads to students. We chat with Aoife Grace, Aoibhinn & their teacher Ms. Pheasey to hear more...

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Four-year-old Mason O Reilly or 'Mace the Ace' as he is known on Instagram saw his sensational soccer skills being shown on FOX news recently. Shonagh caught up with his Dad Danny to hear more.

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What to do with the clothes your kids have outgrown?

Let's Help Direct Provision is a social enterprise set up by Louisamay that brings items to those in Direct Provision – much of which are clothes for kids in an initiative she calls 'Let's Match Mums'. She tells Shonagh all about it...

Last week Shonagh caught up with Coach Aoife Harnett from Wexford club - 'Gymnasts with Goals' a group of acrobatic gymnasts from Wexford, many of whom are on the Irish National Acrobatic Squad.

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They are acrobatic gymnasts from Gymstars Gymnastics Club in Wexford, many of whom are on the Irish National Acrobatic Squad and ran 1000km during the month of February 2021 to raise some much-needed funds. Unfortunately, Acrobatic Gymnastics in Ireland receives no funding whatsoever and due to Covid-19 they have been unable to fundraise in the manner we normally do, and this is money that we heavily rely on to further our development as gymnasts in our beloved sport.

They recognize that many local causes have a similar issue to us in that they cannot do any of their normal fundraisings. With that in mind, they have decided that we want to donate 50% of all money raised to Wexford Women’s Refuge who are hopeful that the building will commence in the next few months of 12 apartments for women and children.  While the build itself is government-funded, money still needs to be raised for the necessary supports required to facilitate all needs such as counseling, childcare, educational programs and the application of safety orders. It should not be forgotten that Wexford Women’s Refuge serves all of Wexford County and not just Wexford town and the work they do is second to none.

Covid-19 may have crushed their dreams in 2020 and into 2021, but they are determined that it will not strip chance to get back to doing what we do best (as soon as we can) and to achieve the highest accolade of representing our club and country.

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Last week Shonagh had the chats with Ryan from Wexford who juggles working on an oncology ward with theatre.

 
A founding member of the Luna Collective which has been creating online theatre, their recent work, 100 Shades of Being, is all about people's experience of lockdown. He explains how Luna has been a release for him.

Fresh from the release of her latest book 'The Self Love Habit' we chat with Clinical Hypnotherapist Fiona Brennan about overcoming anxiety and embracing self-care!

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Fresh from the release of her latest book 'The Self Love Habit' we chatted with Clinical Hypnotherapist Fiona Brennan- Clinical Hypnotherapist- The Positive Habit about overcoming anxiety and embracing self-care!
Last week's Wednesday Warrior was 17-year-old Wexford filmmaker Muirinn Carty who was 'Highly Commended' for her short film Taciturn, a gorgeous portrait of a young girl who is pushed outside her comfort zone when a new friend enters her life.

She told Shonagh how lockdown allowed her to hone her skills as a filmmaker and how the short's message transcended into her own life.


 

This Wednesday Warrior was with Croia Ireland founder Ciara Hennebry from Lemybrien Co Waterford who is organising a mental health and suicide awareness cycle in aid of Suicide Or Survive.

 

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This Wednesday Warrior saw Shonagh catch up with Wexford well-being coach Christine Doyle who along with D'Lush cafe are running a campaign this week called #colouryourway on Instagram for Mental Health Ireland!

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Tipp Students Kaitlyn Ryan and Kayleigh Cronin who brought their Positive Wellbeing app to the BT Young Scientist competition spoke to Shonagh in our second Wednesday Warrior of February.

Dubbed 'Give Me That ENERGY', the app by the Coláiste Mhuire Co-Ed students was highly commended in their Senior category at this year's virtual event.

Give Me That ENERGY! was created to pave the pathway to positive wellbeing, with ENERGY standing for:

  1. Exercise
  2. Nutrition
  3. Exhale
  4. Random
  5. Gratitude
  6. Your Safety on the internet.

Due to the challenges brought about by Covid-19 and the isolation many people have felt during lockdown, the Tipp students felt there was room for tech to get people active, keep them healthy and engaging in self-care.

Using their own lived experience, feedback from their school community and the challenges they’ve witnessed throughout the pandemic, the students compiled their app to act as a home for all the tools the user needs to improve their personal wellbeing.

A user-friendly service, the app offers the user resources, tasks to achieve and maintain a positive wellbeing and a safe platform to log their progress.

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Feb 3rd's Wednesday Warrior saw our Sho chat with Stacey Fiat formerly of the Pen Pal Project.

"We’ve had a lot of people ask us to do other projects like charity fundraisers for homelessness and mental health, random acts of kindness and the list goes on," says Stacey as she talks about her latest initiative - the Feel Good Projects.

"I changed the name to Stacey’s Feel Good Projects as I feel the name represents what we are doing better. Our first project is a 5km Charity run for Focus Ireland that is taking place on February 20th & 21st. We have already raised over €1000 which is incredible."

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